World News - Florida Eighth-Grader Shot by Police While Brandishing Pellet Gun at School Dies

A reportedly suicidal teenager who was shot by police while brandishing a pellet gun in his middle school has died of his injuries, his family's spokeswoman said Saturday. Kelly Swofford, a neighbor who had been with the family all morning, stood outside their home and confirmed that 15-year-old Christopher Penley had died. "They want to donate his organs because that is what Chris would want," Swofford said. "The family is devastated, just devastated." Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom. ... http://abcnews.go.com

The FBI anticipates performing DNA tests on the victims of a purported CIA airstrike in Pakistan that apparently targeted al-Qaeda's second-in-command, a law enforcement official said Saturday.At least 17 people were killed in the airstrike on Damadola, near the Afghan border. Senior Pakistani officials told The Associated Press that the CIA acted on erroneous information in launching the attack early Friday, and that Ayman al-Zawahri was not among the dead.In Washington, Pentagon, State Department, National Security Council and intelligence officials did not immediately provide additional details about the attack....http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-01-14-airstrike-dna-tests_x.htm?csp=34

Soldiers exposed to Iraq's increasingly lethal roadside bombs, which can rip through armored Humvees, are drawing on wartime experience and stateside expertise to protect their vehicles with stronger armor and thermal detection cameras.The upgrades are being done by individual soldiers and units as the Pentagon decides how Humvees should be changed, and follow public criticism of the Bush administration for not armoring all Humvees ahead of the war.Nearly three years after rolling into Iraq in trucks covered in many instances only by canvas roofs, the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade is adding extra layers of armor to its Humvees.Col. Michael Steele, the brigade's commander, said he ordered the improvements because the insurgents' roadside bombs -- known to the military as "improvised explosive devices" -- have become bigger and harder to detect....http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/01/14/iraq.humvees.ap/index.html?section=cnn_world

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his nation has no intention of building nuclear weapons amid rising international concern that its uranium enrichment research is a front for developing atomic bombs. ``Our nation doesn't need nuclear weapons,'' Ahmadinejad said in a televised press conference in Tehran today broadcast by international networks including CNN. ``You can use nuclear technology in several ways, and we want to do so peacefully.'' His comments came a day after U.S. President George W. Bush urged the United Nations Security Council to help persuade Iran to drop its nuclear power program that hinges on the enrichment of uranium, a technology that can also be used to build weapons. ...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aqldxQnBsIuk&refer=home

WHILE Gordon Thomas describes a well-organised, precision Mossad operation to kill the Munich terrorists, there was failure. Secret archives released in London last year revealed a botched job by the Israeli secret service in its hunt for the men who killed the 11 Israeli athletes. A Moroccan catering worker was mistakenly killed in Norway, by 2 Israelis after they got out of a car beside him. They thought they were killing Ali Hassan Salame, the Palestinian behind the Munich Games massacre.Ahmed Bouchikhi had been living in Lillehammer for 9 years, and his wife, Torill Larsen, was expecting their child. He had gone to a public swimming pool the previous day and, while swimming, had a casual conversation with another Arab, an Algerian called Kamal Benamane. They did not notice a man and a woman nearby - Israeli agents. The Israelis believed, wrongly, that Benamane was a Black September courier who might lead them to their target, Salame. The Israelis decided Bouchikhi must be Salame,...http://smh.com.au/news/world/how-mossad-got-the-wrong-man/2006/01/13/1137118970199.html

Declaring that the United States was at a crossroads in Iraq, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops said Thursday the time had come to withdraw U.S. troops as fast as responsibly possible and to hand control of the country to Iraqis. "Our nation's military forces should remain in Iraq only as long as it takes for a responsible transition, leaving sooner than later," said Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Wenski, chairman of the bishops Committee on International Policy, said recent statements by the Bush administration that troop levels would be reduced were not enough. He said the U.S. must send an unmistakable signal that the goal was not to occupy Iraq "for an indeterminate period," but to help Iraqis assume full control of their government. The eight-page statement, in the works for months and delivered to the White House and members of Congress on Thursday, was candid in its assessment of the war, ...http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bishops13jan13,0,1236291.story?coll=la-home-nation